Defending champions Naren-Ram clinch season opener, Coffee Day Rally

Chikmagalur, 25 May 2003: Defending champion Naren Kumar of Team MRF overcame initial hiccups to clinch the Coffee Day Championship Rally 2003, the opening round of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) here on Sunday. On Friday, the opening day Naren, along with his navigator D Ramkumar, faced some issues but managed to steer back and won the season opener at the Coffee stages here on Sunday.

Naren clocked 2 hours, 38 minutes and 24 seconds to beat teammate Karandip Singh and co-driver Jaidas Menon by 49 seconds. Karandip did go flat out in the last stages on Sunday but had to be content with the Overall second place as the champion managed to hang on.

Lohith Urs and MK Bopanna, the Mysore-Coorg combinatin, claimed the 1400 cc class without much trouble. Rahul Kantharaj and co-driver Vivek Bhatt were second with Karthikeyan and co-driver Veera Shanmugham taking third place. There were only three finishers in the class.

Experienced Sanjay Aggarwal made a winning comeback bagging the Rally Star Cup, with Manoj Mohan as the navigator. In 1998 Sanjay met with a serious accident during the South India Rally and was hospitalised for a long time and the rehab for his broken back took years and it a victory to his spirit to make a return to rallying at the Coffee Day event. The only all-ladies crew of Anita Kholay and Rashmi Bopanna finished sixth in the Rally Star Cup.

Provisional results:

Overall (1600 cc): 1. Naren Kumar /D Ramkumar(Team MRF) (2hours, 38min, 24sec); 2. Karandip Singh/ Jaidas Menon(Team MRF) (2:39.13); N. Leelakrishnan/ Farooq Ahmed(Team MRF) (2:39.32); Arjun Balu /R Kumar (02:41.20).

1400cc class: 1. Lohith Urs /MK Bopanna (2:45:36); Rahul Kantharaj/ Vivek Bhat (2:48:15); 3. Karthikeyan /S Veera Shanmugham (2:51:26).

Rally Star Cup: 1. Sanjay Aggarwal /Manoj Menon (2:51:00); 2. Amith Kumar /ASN Shanmugha (2:53:35); 3. Arjun Rao /ACK Chinappa (2:54:46); 4. Roopesh /Chetan (3:03:31) 5. BH Abhijeet Pai /Divin JE (3:19:47); 6. Anita Kholay /Rashmi Bopanna (3:56:06).